Considering a specialty change? Curious about wound care? Procedures like debridement, biopsies, and chemical cauterization are all typical procedures you can expect to perform as part of the everyday treatment regimen. To drive positive outcomes, physicians interested in the wound care field should be patient-focused and procedurally oriented.
Physicians seeking a career in wound care often come from an array of specialty areas, such as family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, vascular surgery, and plastic surgery – to name a few. For this reason, physicians entering the wound care field possess diverse levels of experience.
For instance, surgeons commonly have familiarity with routine wound procedures and thus undergo a relatively seamless transition into the field. Similarly, internal medicine and family medicine physicians perform these common wound care procedures but at a much lesser frequency. The field of wound care offers a valuable landscape for physicians to hone their procedural focus while gaining increased exposure to these common procedures.
Typical Procedures for Wound Care
While every patient and every wound is unique, there are a handful of procedures you can expect to perform on a regular basis as a wound care physician. Here’s a look at the top three.
Debridement
Debridement is critical to modern wound healing and involves surgically removing necrotic tissues from the wound and destroyed biofilm. There are varying techniques that can be employed depending on the nature of the wound, including surgical, chemical, mechanical, autolytic, enzymatic, or biological.
Biopsy
Biopsies are employed as a vehicle for effectively guiding the treatment of chronic wounds. They have the ability to diagnose malignancy, as well as other abnormalities present within a wound. When suspicious skin lesions are identified, biopsies can be utilized for two purposes: to guide subsequent therapy recommendations or to confirm a diagnosis.
Cauterization
Commonly used to thwart bleeding, cauterization uses a heated instrument or caustic chemical agent to burn the skin. Cauterization is a popular procedure in wound care as it can help manage any hypergranulation present within a wound, as well as promote managing epibole that has developed at the wound's edge.
Our Approach to Wound Care
Physicians who thrive in wound care are those who are procedurally adept and passionate about driving positive patient outcomes by performing regular surgical procedures. At Skilled Wound Care, we supply physicians with comprehensive training and support to facilitate a seamless transition into the field and bolster their long-term success.
Many wound care physicians perform these procedures in designated wound care clinics or hospitals. Skilled Wound Care physicians, however, bring advanced procedural skills to the patient’s bedside. Why? Because it mitigates the risk of infection and transport-related injuries while driving superior patient outcomes. As a physician, this enables you to maintain and monitor patient treatment plans, as well as deliver high-quality continuity of care.
Step into Wound Care Today
The ever-evolving field of wound care has a high demand for physicians as patient needs continue to grow. By making the transition to wound care, physicians can improve professional autonomy and work-life balance while continuing to engage in hands-on patient care. As a result, physicians can effectively reduce stress, mitigate burnout, and rediscover their passion for the medical field.
Learn why more and more physicians are choosing to explore wound care by visiting our careers page today.